Marshall Cletis Byles, or Charlie as he was more commonly known in Logan, W. Va., was the auto mechanic who developed a special breed of tomato known as the Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter. Byles' auto shop was at the foot of a large mountain where trucks would often end up after the radiator blew, hence his nickname, Radiator Charlie.

Sometime in the '40s, Byles decided to breed a bigger, better tomato. He eventually developed it and sold seedlings for $1, a steep price at the time. But Byles' popular tomato made enough money to pay off the mortgage on his house, and the Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomato was born.

McCartney heard this story and, partly because his wife, Rachel, loves tomatoes so much, he wrote a song for her. The song is called "Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter" and it kicks off Who Hit John's second album, "Heirloom," a carefully chosen word with a double meaning referencing the tomato as well as the vintage, hand-me-down style of music the band performs. There are songs about the 1919 Black Sox, the Chicago White Sox team that was paid to throw the World Series, and the Civil War.

"You can convincingly sing about something that happened 100 years ago if you're playing a banjo," bassist Ian Gorman said.

Who Hit John? -- Gorman, banjo/slide guitar player Dan McCartney, violinist/harmonica player Nathan Dannison, guitarist Kris Kehn and mandolinist Nick Vander Vliet -- will release their album at 8 p.m. Wednesday at The Strutt, 773 W. Michigan Ave., and the first few people to purchase the CD will get a RCML seed packet.

Each member of the band wrote tracks on the album. Gorman, who joined the band more than a year ago, contributed four songs. Two of the album's standouts came from Vander Vliet -- the thigh-slapping "Birthed from the Earth" and frustration-laced "Watering Hole," which is best listened to while wearing an eye patch and swinging a dusty bottle of rum.

Gorman and McCartney said it's one of the band's favorite songs on the new album.
It features the entire band growling the chorus:

"We're all going down, down, down/We're all going down to the watering hole/We're all going down, down, down/To the great, big watering hole in the ground."

The song laments the troubles of the working class. The inspiration is taken from friends of the band who have lost their jobs and are struggling to make ends meet.

The album was recorded over two live sessions -- one in the spring and one in the fall -- at the 100-year-old barn of Western Michigan University sound engineer John Campos. Gorman said "Watering Hole" exemplifies the balance between the controlled atmosphere of the studio and the emotion and looseness of a live show.

"We said, 'Go for it' and put it out there," Gorman said. "If your voice cracks, who cares? We got in front of the microphone and shouted our a---- off and there you go.

"To me, I feel like the record has a lot of life to it. It's got a lot of rough edges, but in a good way. It has a lot of honesty."

Speaking of life, there's McCartney's "Till the Last Dog Dies," which he calls a "declaration of intent."

McCartney said he's hoping to make Who Hit John? a full-time venture. He said the addition of Gorman had taken the band "to the next level" by making it a "tighter creative group."

"Within the last year, this band has gotten to the point where it can pay the bills," he said.